FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



433 



long as 34 inches, the great majority running from 23 to 30 inches and from 5 to 10 

 pounds, while fish of 24 to 28 inches and weighing 5H to 8J4 pounds formed almost 

 three-fourths of the total. The relationship between length and weight in 780 

 ripe fish (460 males and 320 females) measured by Welsh is illustrated on the 

 accompanying diagram (fig. 216). 



General range. — Both sides of the North Atlantic; most abundant on the Ameri- 

 ican coast from Cabot Strait to Cape Cod. In winter haddock are taken southward 

 to New York and New Jersey, and they have been recorded in deep*water as far as 

 the latitude of Cape Hatteras ; but the species as a whole is so much more closely con- 

 fined to waters east of Marthas Vineyard than is the cod that only 85,791 pounds of 



WEIGHT 



L65. 



15 



2Z 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3f 32 33 34 



LU16TH, INCHES 

 Fig. 216.— Average weight of ripe haddock of different lengths, male ( ) and female ( ), at Gloucester, March to May, 1913 



haddock were caught off New York and New Jersey in 1915, contrasting with an 

 annual catch of one to two million pounds of cod for that part of the coast. Nor 

 does the range of the haddock extend as far north as that of the cod, only a few 

 being taken in the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence or in the Atlantic 

 northward of the Grand Banks, and none at all beyond the Straits of Belle Isle, 

 whereas multitudes of cod summer along the east coast of Labrador. 



Occurrence in the Gvlfof Maine. — Haddock, cod, pollock, mackerel, and herring 

 together are the backbone of the great commercial fisheries of the Gulf of Maine. 

 In weight of fish caught haddock are surpassed only by herring (the latter are in- 

 comparably the most numerous fish in the Gulf, as pointed out on page 93) ; and by 

 cod (p. 412) alone in the value of the catch. 



